College Application Workflow

Provide the user with a way to enter standard college application information in a Profile that was shared with colleges when they applied.

The Profile

Problem

In the original design, the user had the option to provide custom information for each application within the Profile itself. This requirement came from our initial conversations with stakeholders.

We tried many versions of this design, but none seemed to make sense.

Old application workflow

Solution

Through usability testing, I found that storing different responses to the same questions wasn’t something the user expected to be able to do while applying to multiple colleges.

The team discussed the requested functionality with our clients and found that they didn’t have a particular need for the proposed feature. They were fine with being able to add custom questions or repeat Profile questions in the application.

New application workflow

I simplified the workflow so applicants could import their answers into the application, and clients could create any custom question they wanted.

Outcome

Through user research, we completely avoided developing a potentially cumbersome, unintuitive and unnecessary workflow for college applicants. The new model that required more setup on the client’s side but made more sense to the end user.